As partnerships, companies and commercial entities continue to strive for efficiency, consistency and flexibility, computers and software executed on computers are increasingly relied upon to automate, semi-automate, enhance, quicken and make reliable and uniform business processes. This is true even in fields of professional service providers, such as financial auditors, certified public accountants, lawyers, doctors, etc. In addition, with ever increasing bandwidth and data storage capabilities and compression techniques, large quantities of data, including audio and video streaming, may be effectively communicated over networks such as the Internet for a wide range of services and purposes.
The invention has application in areas of professional education and professional accreditation, such as the series of certified public accountant “CPA” exams required by individuals prior to receiving professional designations, e.g., CPA, as well as continuing education required to maintain such designations in various national, international and state jurisdictions. Professional education is also critical to professional firms for the development of its employees and for maintaining a pool of skilled individuals well adapted to meet the needs of clients in professional engagements, such as audits and preparing tax related filings.
In the various fields of professional services there exist computer/network-based professional research and resource systems that provide professionals with tools and resources to better deliver professional services to clients and within an organization. Such delivery of professional services may be from without an organization, such as by professional services firms, like law firms and accounting firms, or it may be from within an organization, such as an internal audit department. Companies, such as Thomson Reuters Corporation and all of its affiliated companies (collectively “Thomson Reuters”), provide tools, resources and services to assist professionals, including lawyers, accountants and auditors in the practice of their respective profession. In the often overlapping areas of accounting, tax, financial reporting, internal compliance, and auditing, one such system is the CHECKPOINT® platform and in the area of legal services one such system is WESTLAW®, both offerings of Thomson Reuters.
CHECKPOINT is an online, browser-based, tax and accounting research service/platform used by professionals in providing tax and accounting related services to external clients or internally within organizations in the areas of internal auditing, planning, cost management, compliance, financial reporting, risk assessment and internal controls. CHECKPOINT may be used in conjunction with other products and services. CHECKPOINT research tools may be used with other software and tools and applied against guidance and content resources, such as the following software, tools, guidance and content: RIA®, PPC®, EBIA®, IBFD® and WG&L®, all offerings of Thomson Reuters. CHECKPOINT in conjunction with such tools and content may be employed to deliver, for example, guidance in areas of tax and accounting, employee benefits, etc., with delivery in the form of suggested auditing and other procedures, interactive checklists, links, e.g., hyperlinks, to content, questionnaires, uniform practice documentation, etc. CHECKPOINT provides professionals, such as accountants, financial managers, controllers, compliance officers and treasurers, with tax and accounting related content and resources including: expert editorial analysis from RIA, guidance from WG&L authors and PPC experts, and content from IBFD, EBIA and others sources. CHECKPOINT integrates content from RIA, WG&L, PPC, IBFD, EBIA and BNA® with primary sources from organizations including AICPA (American Institute of Certified Public Accountants), SEC (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission), GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principle/Procedure), FASB (Financial Accounting Standards Board), GASB (Governmental Accounting Standards Board), IASB (International Accounting Standards Board) and more. Users can search with customizable search options performed against customizable libraries and are presented with links to primary source materials and analysis, as well as workflow tools. CHECKPOINT delivers tax and accounting news to user inboxes and makes such information accessible online.
CHECKPOINT may also be used with tax, auditing, and compliance software, for instance Thomson Reuters' CS PROFESSIONAL SUITE® (including PRACTICE CS®, ENGAGEMENT CS®, ULTRATAX CS® and others), PPC's E-PRACTICE AIDS®, PPC's E-TOOLS®, PPC's SMART PRACTICE AIDS®, WG&L's E-TOOLS FOR INTERNAL AUDIT®, ONESOURCE®, GOSYSTEM®, GOTRACKER®, TAXSTREAM®, FAST-TAX®, E-FORM®, WORKPAPERS PLUS®, PPC'S ENGAGEMENT LETTER GENERATOR®, DISCLOSURE® and Interactive Disclosure Libraries. Using CHECKPOINT in conjunction with these related software, tools, and services enables users to more efficiently access and process large volumes of data, regulatory and other content and to deliver accounting, auditing, tax (federal, state and local, international), estate planning, payroll, compliance, internal controls, financial management, engagement management, and many other related services. Solutions such as PRACTICE CS and ENGAGEMENT CS, provide users with dashboards or user interfaces to facilitate the management of a professional practice and firm as well as management of discrete engagements associated with such a practice. Such systems provide tools to manage time-keeping, engagement assignments and time-tables/progress, invoicing/billing,
Related to the delivery of professional services, there exist products and services directed to providing professional development resources, such as training, continuing professional education (“CPE” or “cpe”), professional accreditation reporting and tracking. Such products and services include, for example, REQWIRED®, MICROMASH®, Course Finder, Online Grading Center, PASSONLINE®, PPC, RIA, GEARUP®, Bell Learning, QUICKFINDER®, CPEFINDER®, Webinar Learning Network, and AUDITWATCH®. These services may be described as learning management tools that provide continuing education and training course, content, tracking, reporting and related functionality. Education and training content can be in print or electronic form or a combination and may be delivered in a variety of forms, including in-house seminars, live seminars, audio/video taped and streamed seminars and conferences, live seminars and conferences, self-study, learning self-study, and instructor-led learning. MICROMASH and PASSONLINE provide computer-based training, online learning, and continuing professional education content and services to financial professionals, CPA firms, global corporations, government agencies, associations, higher education institutions, and individual learners. Courses may be available online, via download, and CD format. GEARUP, Bell Learning, PPC, and AUDITWATCH offer live seminars and conferences, in-house training, self-study courses. Course Finder is an interactive, online search engine for CPE and training solutions. REQWIRED, a learning management solution (LMS) and CPE tracking solution directed to accounting and financial professionals offered by Thomson Reuters, provides learning libraries and tools for professionals to learn in an “on-demand” fashion to meet learning and development needs set by the practice group and the professional services firm or organization. REQWIRED provides computer-based “e-learning” training, pointing to overall “significant” increases in retention and transfer of learning, and heightened ability to apply skills on the job. Although cost-savings, convenience, tracking and monitoring are advantages associated with learning systems, these systems make up a fragmented market what is needed is a system that can integrate the various education and reporting related needs.
Most professionals are subject to mandatory continuing education requirements critical to licensing and practice in the associated area or profession. One problem associated with managing CPE requirements is that each state in the United States maintains a unique set of ever-changing rules and requirements. Keeping abreast of the various and changing requirements, and their applicability to each professional's unique situation, is a daunting and time-consuming task. REQWIRED's computer-based system includes some capabilities in the areas of continuing education tracking, CPE compliance management, rule change monitoring, and tracking of CPE requirements, e.g., for accounting professionals, lawyers, doctors and other professionals. REQWIRED includes capabilities in the areas of establishing and managing internal training.
The disjointed products and services discussed above and those known fail to provide professional organizations a comprehensive platform for integrating professional engagement, professional resources, engagement and staff management, professional and staff training, education and reporting, and related services associated with delivery of professional services.
In addition, the products and services offered today are not flexible enough to meet the ever changing needs of individuals or organizations. For example, it would be advantageous for professional organizations, as well as individuals, to have the ability to select what courses are to be included in program products and services to meet organizational and/or individual goals effectively.
Accordingly, there is a need for a comprehensive and/or integrated platform that accomplishes the before-mentioned needs for organizations and individuals in an efficient and effective manner.